This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal

Possible Pathophysiologic Role of Smoking

Alan Faden, MD; Edward Mendoza, MD; Fred Flynn, MD

Arch Neurol. 1981;38(10):639-642.

Abstract
• Twenty of 23 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) showed electrophysiologic evidence of peripheral nerve dysfunction. Abnormalities of sensory nerve conduction were most common, affecting the sural nerve (20 subjects), ulnar nerve (11), radial nerve (eight), and median nerve (seven). Six subjects had impairment of both sensory and motor nerve function, with the common peroneal being the most frequently affected motor nerve. Clinical signs of neuropathy were found in four patients. Cigarette smoking, expressed as pack-years, was correlated significantly with the electrophysiologic abnormalities. These findings indicate that subclinical polyneuropathy commonly occurs in association with COPD and that this COPD-related neuropathy is correlated with cigarette consumption. From these data we suggest that a substance or substances in cigarette smoke, such as nicotine, taken on a long-term basis, may be toxic to peripheral nerves.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Neurology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Md (Dr Faden); Department of Medical Neurosciences, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC (Dr Faden); and Department of Neurology, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC (Drs Mendoza and Flynn).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Dec 12, 1980.

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and should not be construed as official or as necessarily reflecting the views of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, or the Army Medical Department.

Reprint requests to Department of Neurology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Rd, Bethesda, MD 20014 (Dr Faden).

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Axonal polyneuropathy in obstructive sleep apnoea
Ludemann et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2001;70:685-687.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Neurological manifestations in chronic mountain sickness: the burning feet-burning hands syndrome
Thomas et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2000;69:447-452.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT